except the heat (and cavs last round) are lucky the pistons can't seem to hit the broadside of a barn. i mean how many wide-ass open shots is billups gonna miss in these playoffs. hamilton missed a wide open 4 footer on a break and a few other easy jumpers, rasheed never makes anything. i know the heat missed 14 of 20 free throws but the pistons just don't make anything. they shot 39% on 3's this year and at one ponit were 0-10. this is why i have a hard time blaming flip. the pistons collapse has been so sudden, so inexplicable, and so based on them not being able to hit a shot i can't figure out who to blame. i mean they killed people in the regular season, when it's usually hard to motivate a championship-caliber team. he was brought in to help the O, and it was much better, and the D stayed close to the same. so maybe he can't coach the playoffs and that's when they sucked, but no they cruised for 7 games, tearing up the bucks and cavs. oh, so maybe he beat the pansies and couldn't hang when he ran into a real team like the heat. but no, the collapse just suddenly happened b/t games 2 and 3 of the cavs series. against the cavs, who play no defense, the pistons suddenly couldn't break 85 and averaged a stupefying 79.2 ppg the last 5 games. and this after scoring 105 ppg the first two games (and 107 in the milw series). suddenly billups lost his confidence and couldn't free lance and score. rip seemed tight on all his jumpers. rasheed's 3's dried up. only prince really remained. how did that happen? how can this be explained? i've never seen a battle-tested, title-winning team on a roll just lose their mojo overnight right in the middle of the playoffs. a team basically no one could kill was suddenly just laying down and dying. it's not like people can say he forgot about D and they lost their identity. D is the only thing keeping them going. miami only averaged 91.5 ppg in the first 4 and it's now at 88.8 after the first 5. if you have to hold people to less than 88 ppg to win, your D isn't the problem. and the infighting doesn't seem to explain it b/c everything should've been hunky dory (sp?) after game 2 against the cavs as they were rolling. but then the slide started, out of the blue. i don't know if it's lack of passion or they're feeling the pressure to outdo what they did under larry (b/c they hate him) and are playing tight. but whatever it is, miami is lucky it happened. even if miami might actually be the better team, it shouldn't have been this easy so far. maybe the pistons can continue to be impossible to kill and pull this off, but i'm not getting my hopes up.
I don't buy it. The Pistons were never head and shoulders above the rest. Even their title year I believe a few plays either way determined the NJ and Indy series. If Karl Malone goes down, the Lakers series could have been different too. Even last year, the Pistons probably lose to a less talented Miami team if Wade doesn't go down, and the Pistons ended up losing anyway with three weak efforts against the Spurs (game 1,2 & 7) The Pistons are a great man to man defensive team, they have few opponents who they don't have somone who can man up pretty well. But Wade and Lebron are two of such guys and they cause problems (Manu also was a big thorn). Also, the Pistons have no offensive players who can just get a quality shot every time. They have to work hard and have great chemistry to get really high quality shots against the better defenses. But I wouldn't count them out. The Pistons are a tough and effortfull bunch. If they find a way to beat the Heat they will win the title because they will grind up the Suns or Mavs in a series.
There aren't that many people to like on Miami. Bitter has-been Zo, A-hole Walker, and Gary ring-w**** Payton. I really hope the Pistons pull this one off.
Are you fkking kidding me? Did you not see the officiating in Game four? The refs handed the game to Miami--or did you think that was actually good/fair?
Not to the level of Wade, Shaq, Duncan, Lebron, Kobe, Dirk, etc. Billups is the closest they got, I give you that. Sheed is somewhere after Rip and Prince.
He's playing but hampered by some ailment, i think he possibly has the flu or something, I missed it when they were talking about it.
Pistons deserve to lose. The D is non existent. On the offensive end, they: 1) missed wide open 3s; 2) missed wide open 2s; 3) missed layups; 4) lost the ball on 3-1 fast break. They are playing horrible ball. The Suns would have finished them in 5 games, and so will the Spurs.
Agreed. It's not Flip's fault. The players just don't have the fire and determination to win. Missing those wide open shots and layups time and time again is unacceptable.
unless flip is the one instructing them to never make an open shot, no matter how easy, then yeah i don't see how he can be blamed. bill simmons (and others) seems to think he's coached them into the ground, but i don't see it. everything was fine for about 89 games, and then overnight they just sucked and stopped making shots and have never let up since then. i mean that was horrendous. hamilton had to have played the worst game in nba history for someone who scored 33 points. he missed so many jumpers, turned it over, and must've had at least 5 drives where he tried to create contact (and didn't, except for about 1) and blew an easy shot trying. every time they had a sliver of hope, they'd get a wide open 3 and blow it. billups managed to miss an open 3 from the corner then on the next possession blow an open layup. rasheed actually hit the side of the backboard on a 3 and had about 4 fifteen footers that were open that he clanged. their shooting has just been impossibly bad this series and while the heat have played good D, the heat don't seem to get any more open shots than the pistons. the heat just bother to make them every once in a while. the heat only scored 95 and that was with the pistons basically shutting it down on D for the last 5 minutes. now i get to watch shaq in the finals again. my God, i'm left rooting for dallas at this freakin' point.
Im glad Detroit loss. Im tired of hearing that they are really good when 'their backs against the wall'. we all know what team is the best at that.
I don't care why, the only thing that matters is the Pistons lost! Their window has just about closed. Jumpman, where ARE you? I'm waiting for another picture of Rasheed. Don't disappear on me now. Much as I like Flip, he deserves major blame. As I speculated when their record was 35-4 (or whatever it was), the Pistons peaked midyear and could not recapture their form. No matter how you slice it, the coach deserves a lot of the blame for that. The better NBA coaches prime their teams for playoff runs. Flip just failed. He will be under intense scrutiny next year. The players also deserve blame. Big Ben has declined and isn't the player he used to be. Rasheed has the same problem plus he allows himself to be distracted way too often. Chauncy may be the biggest disappointment of them all. Right now it's hard to believe some considered him an MVP candidate. Ain't no way. Rip is still Rip. He had a great regular season and a very good postseason but lost his shooting touch for much of the playoffs. Tayshaun's best years are ahead of him. He's no longer their weakest starter. McDyess' chance at a championship in Detroit just ended. It's sad how injuries destroyed his chance at greatness. He's nothing more than trade bait at this point. Dumars has a lot of key decisions to make this summer as the Darko fiasco now starts biting them. McDyess, Big Ben and maybe Rasheed are history in Detroit. I'm not worried about them next year at all.
No matter how much you dislike Shaq, you have to admit he is a winner. Wherever he goes, that team will become an instant winner. I say he is greater than Dream.
I say he is not. Shaq has won more championships, and he may win another, but that does not make him better than the Dream. Both are freaks of nature, but Hakeem was just unbelievably quick and explosive. He was more of a "complete" athlete than Shaq, almost a D.Wade in a seven foot body. Head to head, the Dream's agility usually over-ruled Shaq's superior strength. In the championship playoff series, Hakeem won, Shaq lost. But, in all fairness, both will probably be considered among the top five centers of all time for years to come.
Put a Hakeem in his prime on any team, and they would be instant winners too. Lets not forget that Dwayne Wade guy had something to do with the win also. You need to surround a big man with clutch players.
Let's stop with this dumb "Shaq vs. Dream" debate, because both players are great and for the most part on equal footing in terms of greatness, regardless of how radically different their games were. I am glad Miami won, new faces in the Finals, the NBA is interesting once again, it's something to watch. I would love for Miami to destroy Dallas, wouldn't mind seeing good, solid human beings like Shaq and Wade get a ring, not to mention Zo (although I dislike Payton and Walker, but they're peripheral players at this point of their careers and they're about as significant as Bill Winnington/Bison Dele on the Bulls championship teams).
